Monday, January 30, 2017

Big Changes

January 30, 2017

Big Changes
So probably the entire world, or at least the Mormon world, is aware that the daily schedule and key indicators have changes significantly this past week. 

Thoughts on it?
-I really like it. The benefits include more time to unwind for bed and more time to get going in the morning, which also means more time for exercise :) I feel like this way is a lot more tailored to how life will be like after we all return home which is one of the reasons they gave for the change. 

-Things that are tough about the change? Lunch is 30 min, that’s a killer. Also sometimes it is hard to find a time to schedule comp study during the day. But all in all its some pretty dang good stuff.

Cool things from this week: We met with Patricia, the miracle story from the hospital a while ago. She is sooo cool. S/O to the Pats of the world. She raised racing pigeons for years and made tons of money racing them. She also used to be a gymnast, then a judge for gymnastics in the world games, then a coach for years and started he gymnastics program for high schoolers across a lot of the Northwest. She also used to be a fencer and was a track coach and a swimming coach and a basketball coach. She was telling us about a 1-armed push-up competition she had with her dad (she did 20 in a row) and when we asked her her technique, she got down on the ground to do one!! If i did not mention already this girl is 90 years old! Once a week she holds a free stained glass windows class to teach her neighbors how to make stained glass windows, which she does from her garage. She never gets pedicures or pays for a housekeeper because she saves all the money she would have spent and donates it to charity! Her life is pretty great. Any suggestions on how to help her see why she should try coming to our church?

This week we had the road cast from SLC about the missionary change, and the next day two reps from SLC came out to train us. It was so good. Usually we schedule our day, then make plans four our investigators, then set goals according to how much stuff we already have set. They showed us that we are doing the whole process backwards. First have a vision, then set goals to achieve it, then make plans to make those goals a reality!

We're rebuilding our teaching pool RN, so like Claire Christensen says, I'm excited to meet some new friends haha. Finding is the funnest thing ever. If you have a bad attitude its not too fun, but its where you get all your good stories and it's pretty cool to see people encounter the Gospel of Jesus Christ for the first time!

Love ya guys! Write down a goal today and set a plan to make it happen!

It's good to note the mission hasn't changed my taste buds

Laminating in a suit...welcome to the mission field



Monday, January 23, 2017

I never ever, ever thought this would happen....

January 23, 2017

I never ever, ever thought this would happen. I deliberately told every one of my companions that it was stupid and I would never do it. I did it today. I TOOK A NAP ON PDAY!!!!!!! I was also probably one of the best decisions I have made all week. If that doesn't tell you how tired I have been I don't know what will.

Besides being really tired this week we have also seen a lot of cool stuff happen. 
  1. We had a crazy rainstorm that came through and melted all the snow. I know that missionary emails are the epitome of hyperbole, but it really was a crazy rainstorm. Even for Washington. All we had to do was walk from our car into the houses of our appointments and we got completely soaked.
  2. Zone Conference was postponed because of the rain so we had a surprise zone meeting. How does that work? Idk but it was fun and I felt the spirit.
  3. We met with Everado quite a bit this week, which is pretty awesome. He has a wife and two kids and was progressing pretty well until he dropped off the face of the earth. We tried so many times to get into contact with him and never got an answer, so finally we prayed on Tuesday and we were like "Heavenly Father, we are going to drop Everado if he is not home tonight so please help him to be home." He was! Then he has been home every time after that!
  4. We went to the temple as a zone on Thursday. It was really good. Usually when I go to the temple it puts me in a quiet, contemplative mood, but on Thursday it just pumped me up and got me really excited to do missionary work. Huzzah for Israel!
  5. After weekly planning on Friday our apartment came together to discuss what we wanted to accomplish together. We decided that it was the best to keep it simple and focus on A) Developing Charity and B) Helping those we teach understand that God is their loving Heavenly Father. 

       That brought up the question, how do you develop the charity to share that message? We searched everywhere and could not find the answer. Finally during lunch the next day I called the most charitable member I knew in the Tongan ward and asked him the secret. His answer - study the atonement.  To develop charity you have to do it the same way Jesus Christ did. So study Christ's life and His atonement, and live what you learn, and it will all come together.

Love you guys! Have a great week and enjoy the not-flooding-Utah-weather!


"I work as hard as I can and do everything within my power. And I try to keep the commandments. Then I let the Lord make up the difference.” ~ President Ezra Taft Benson 



Monday, January 16, 2017

SNOW!

January 16, 2017

Hey Fam!
Great week here in the diary 'couv! The big news this week is the weather. We actually had sunshine! Jk jk we did, but the big news was the snow. Tuesday evening the snow started coming down and it would not stop! In 24 hours we got like 8" of snow! I do realize that 99.99% of people who read my letters are from Utah and 8" of snow is kind of a sissy number haha but it was more than enough to cause havoc among these Washingtonians! 

Our cars were grounded for a day and a half, and honestly probably should have been for more considering that Vancouver doesn't plow the streets and even today - 5 days later - almost all of the side streets are still covered in ice! But Despite all the bad drivers and the ice, I don't know [Besides skiing of course] the last time I had so much fun with the snow!

Wednesday morning our cars were grounded but everyone wanted to have district meeting anyway so we all walked to district meeting. Some sisters lived an hour and a half away by walking and they still made it! It ended up being one of the best district meetings I have been to and ended with a huge snowball fight!

Like always I wish I had more time to write and talk about all the cool miracles and hints I had learned. But I don't. I'll just sum it up by saying spiritually this has been a really confusing week. I just kinda felt "off" all week and then didn’t get much sleep one night so I was feeling off and really tired and the work was not going the way that I hoped all leading up to Sunday. I ended up going to bed REALLY tired and discouraged Saturday night. Then Sunday morning something really cool happened, I woke up and had one of he most spiritually fulfilling days I have had in a long time and got a lot of answers to a lot of questions I had been asking. It kinda reminded me of President Lorenzo snow's receiving a testimony of the gospel for the first time:

I laid aside my books, left the house and wandered around through the fields under the oppressive influence of a gloomy, disconsolate spirit, while an indescribable cloud of darkness seemed to envelop me. I had been accustomed, at the close of the day, to retire for secret prayer to a grove, a short distance from my lodgings, but at this time I felt no inclination to do so.

“The spirit of prayer had departed, and the heavens seemed like brass over my head. At length, realizing that the usual time had come for secret prayer, I concluded I would not forego my evening service, and, as a matter of formality, knelt as I was in the habit of doing, and in my accustomed retired place, but not feeling as I was wont to feel.
“I had no sooner opened my lips in an effort to pray, than I heard a sound, just above my head, like the rustling of silken robes, and immediately the Spirit of God descended upon me, completely enveloping my whole person, filling me from the crown of my head to the soles of my feet, and O, the joy and happiness I felt! No language can describe the instantaneous transition from a dense cloud of mental and spiritual darkness into a refulgence of light and knowledge, as it was at that time imparted to my understanding. I then received a perfect knowledge that God lives, that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and of the restoration of the Holy Priesthood, and the fullness of the gospel.

“It was a complete baptism—a tangible immersion in the heavenly principle or element, the Holy Ghost; and even more real and physical in its effects upon every part of my system than the immersion by water; dispelling forever, so long as reason and memory last, all possibility of doubt or fear in relation to the fact handed down to us historically, that the ‘Babe of Bethlehem’ is truly the Son of God; also the fact that He is now being revealed to the children of men, and communicating knowledge, the same as in the apostolic times. I was perfectly satisfied, as well I might be, for my expectations were more than realized, I think I may safely say, in an infinite degree.
“I laid aside my books, left the house and wandered around through the fields under the oppressive influence of a gloomy, disconsolate spirit, while an indescribable cloud of darkness seemed to envelop me. I had been accustomed, at the close of the day, to retire for secret prayer to a grove, a short distance from my lodgings, but at this time I felt no inclination to do so.

“The spirit of prayer had departed, and the heavens seemed like brass over my head. At length, realizing that the usual time had come for secret prayer, I concluded I would not forego my evening service, and, as a matter of formality, knelt as I was in the habit of doing, and in my accustomed retired place, but not feeling as I was wont to feel.
“I had no sooner opened my lips in an effort to pray, than I heard a sound, just above my head, like the rustling of silken robes, and immediately the Spirit of God descended upon me, completely enveloping my whole person, filling me from the crown of my head to the soles of my feet, and O, the joy and happiness I felt! No language can describe the instantaneous transition from a dense cloud of mental and spiritual darkness into a refulgence of light and knowledge, as it was at that time imparted to my understanding. I then received a perfect knowledge that God lives, that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and of the restoration of the Holy Priesthood, and the fullness of the gospel.

“It was a complete baptism—a tangible immersion in the heavenly principle or element, the Holy Ghost; and even more real and physical in its effects upon every part of my system than the immersion by water; dispelling forever, so long as reason and memory last, all possibility of doubt or fear in relation to the fact handed down to us historically, that the ‘Babe of Bethlehem’ is truly the Son of God; also the fact that He is now being revealed to the children of men, and communicating knowledge, the same as in the apostolic times. I was perfectly satisfied, as well I might be, for my expectations were more than realized, I think I may safely say, in an infinite degree.

Obviously my Sunday was not THAT great but I think the principle is the same. If you are struggling in ways you never have, or if you're not receiving answers you believe you deserve - keep on going and doing the things you know you should be! Sometimes it's not such a bad thing to feel left alone for a little bit so we can see how we have done at developing our righteous reflexes!

Love you guys! Have a great week!

~Elder Tall Paul Thomas

Monday, January 9, 2017

The bad, the good, the really bad, and the really good

January 9, 2017

Hey Fam!
It has been a great week here in the WVM! It has also been really cold. We had a lot of really cool stuff happen this week and we also had a lot of stuff that wasn't so cool but built our character haha.

The first half of the week was just a solid few days of preaching the gospel. Nothing overly spectacular except that it was just cool to see people opening up the to Gospel of Jesus Christ and letting the atonement change their life. It was also a real struggle against the cold. Honestly idk if I have just acclimated to Washington weather, but this feels a lot colder than Utah ha.

Wednesday was a struggle. 3 Entire families we were teaching came across some unfavorable material and decided they did not want to meet anymore. To give you an idea of a lesson we had - On Monday Jenoah prayed out loud for he first time and she was like "God if you are there... actually no, I know you are there God..." and then went on to give a great prayer! Fast foreword two days and she stands up in front of us and declares that she just cannot believe in God because of "science" then proceeds to march into her room. Then her sister sat down and she was like "Ok I want to start off with 3 Questions: 1. What's the deal with blacks and he priesthood. 2. What is your view on LGBTQ+ rights. And 3. What is the big deal with polygamy." Gosh. Some days just have to be like that.

Thursday something really cool happened. During dinner all of our evening appointments cancelled. We were not sure where to go so we drove to the church and hanging out at the church was 1. A priesthood holder we needed to have sufficient  numbers to give a blessing later on, and 2. Our bishop we have been trying to get in contact with forever! We found out his phone wasn't receiving our messages. We didn't figure out how to fix the problem but at least we learned he wasn't avoiding us! So anyway we left the church and just started driving down the highway. While driving we passed the hospital and got an impression that we should go in. We were like "what? We don't even know anyone in the hospital." But we just decided to walk in. Nothing happened. Walked up to the second floor. Nothing happened. Then we decided to take an elevator to the 5th floor because that's where we went last time we had to give a blessing. Nothing. But then the volunteer on the 5th floor started complimenting us on our church and how nice we looked. (She is 90 years old). So we started talking to her and learned that her daughter is actually a member and one of the biggest leaders of family history work here in the Northwest! The crazy thing is that in district meeting earlier that week we decided that we wanted to find a family history expert to come in and show us how to get Investigators excited about family history!! So cool! So we got her daughters number from her and called, and her daughter was really excited to plan a district meeting to come and teach us!

Honestly I could take up a couple of paragraphs with the miracles we have seen just in the last 2 days, but suffice it to say the Lord is blessing us abundantly, and despite the hard moments I am so dang happy!


Last thought - God is our father. As Brigham young said "If you do not believe that God is your Heavenly Father, cease to call him Father; and when you pray, pray to some other figure." I really believe that. He wants to hear your favorite jokes. He wants you to ask him for advice on dating, and most of all he wants to bless you. Talk to him and let him do it!!


Birthday lunch at Olive Garden

Decorations for cleaning inspections

Mia's birthday!